The Medical Health and Family welfare department of Telangana State has warned the private hospitals for not following proper guidelines while sending the ‘Swine Flu Swabs’ (Specimen samples of Patients) for testing at the Institute of Preventive Medicine in Hyderabad.

The incident came to light when a central team of health officials inspecting the ‘Swine Flu Swabs’ found that some private hospitals in the city were not following proper medical procedure and sending the ‘blood sample’ of the patients by packing them improperly in open cardboard box.

“The private hospitals, in spite of repeated reminders are violating the medical procedure to be followed while packing the blood samples for swine flu testing. In fact they should send the samples in a vaccine kit. As the samples may get destroyed due to high temperature, it is imperative for the hospitals to follow the due procedure of cold chain so as to ensure that the swabs are kept at the required temperature,” said a senior official from Institute of Preventive Medicine at Nallakunta.

During the past few months, the city of Hyderabad has seen a rise in the number of swine flu cases and every day 100s of patients are being registered for the diagnosis of swine flu. From August 2016 to March 2017 6,659 samples have been tested at IPM of which 897 samples have been found positive.

According to officials at IPM, the testing for swine flu is done free of costs; however the sample swabs must be sent in cold chain where the temperature is controlled. As the private hospitals are found repeatedly violating the medical procedure, the central health officials have raised the issue with the higher ups in the health department. Taking cognizance of the issue the state government had issued stern warning to all the hospitals and asked them to abide by the medical procedures and prescribed guidelines.

According to IPM officials except for one or two super specialty hospitals, almost all the private hospitals are found violating the guidelines. “Every day we get at least 30-40 people at the IPM for depositing swine flu swabs for testing. Most of these handlers are patient’s relatives. In fact the private hospitals must send these swabs through their lab assistants, but for this they charge Rs.1,000-1,500 from each patient. To avoid this, the patients themselves are bringing the swabs, which are improperly packed by the hospital staff,” informed an official at IPM.

Having learned about the violations, the state government held a meeting with the members of private hospitals and they were told to follow proper guidelines and protocol or else strict action will be taken against Private hospitals, violating norms, swine flu, Swabs, Medical Health and Family welfare department, Telangana, Institute of Preventive Medicine, Hyderabad, Medical, IPM, the violators.